Credit opportunities after purchasing

[Bill1065]

Back in 1993 I purchased a new Camaro, financing it with about $15,000. After doubling the payments for a number of months I managed to get it down to owing about $10,000. An offer came in the mail from Capital One for a balance transfer of up to $12,000 with an APR of 2.99%. Naturally I took the offer and thus got the title to the car by transferring the balance. Please notice Capital One was not interested in holding the title to the Camaro, all they wanted was to get the balance transfer.

A few days ago I realized I had too many cards with no charges on them so I decided to call the companies and get rid of them. This one particular card had a credit limit of only about $3000. Upon calling to axe the card the lady quickly switched me to a "finance specialist" which offered to raise my credit limit to $14,000 and give a balance tranfer of 1.99 APR for that amount with no balance transfer fees. This APR is good untill the entire balance is paid off. I intend to pay off my Hummer H3 with it. The reason is simply to avoid the 5.49% APR of the H3 loan and get the title free and clear. Just wanted to give a heads up to those with good credit; even after the deal there are ways to save a bunch of money on your car loan. Mentioning the Capital One 2.99 APR led the Rep to say he can go 1 point lower, which he did, to 1.99 APR. You never know what opportunities are out there just waiting to be taken. All it takes is a phone call...

I have yet to get a bill from Chase for the Hummer loan. When it comes I can get the account number for the loan and start the balance transfer. Will keep you posted on how it turns out if anyone is interested.

[Bill1065]

Back in 1993 I purchased a new Camaro, financing it with about $15,000. After doubling the payments for a number of months I managed to get it down to owing about $10,000. An offer came in the mail from Capital One for a balance transfer of up to $12,000 with an APR of 2.99%. Naturally I took the offer and thus got the title to the car by transferring the balance. Please notice Capital One was not interested in holding the title to the Camaro, all they wanted was to get the balance transfer.

A few days ago I realized I had too many cards with no charges on them so I decided to call the companies and get rid of them. This one particular card had a credit limit of only about $3000. Upon calling to axe the card the lady quickly switched me to a "finance specialist" which offered to raise my credit limit to $14,000 and give a balance tranfer of 1.99 APR for that amount with no balance transfer fees. This APR is good untill the entire balance is paid off. I intend to pay off my Hummer H3 with it. The reason is simply to avoid the 5.49% APR of the H3 loan and get the title free and clear. Just wanted to give a heads up to those with good credit; even after the deal there are ways to save a bunch of money on your car loan. Mentioning the Capital One 2.99 APR led the Rep to say he can go 1 point lower, which he did, to 1.99 APR. You never know what opportunities are out there just waiting to be taken. All it takes is a phone call...

I have yet to get a bill from Chase for the Hummer loan. When it comes I can get the account number for the loan and start the balance transfer. Will keep you posted on how it turns out if anyone is interested.

[MarK M]

thats what you call working the system...

[Bill1065]

Actually, that's what I call my little way of sticking it to the man...I mean, if your credit is good all you have to do is sit back and let the credit companies rip off each other. I receive a 1 year 0% APR credit offer at least every 6 months, sometimes with no balance transfer fees. All I do is transfer balances to maintain a continual 0% APR. It seems to good to be true but I have been doing it now for many years. What about you guys?

[Anonymous]

Just be careful, credit card companies have the right, and use it, to raise the percentage rate at any time. Read the fine print. You do have the other offers to fall back on, but keep an eye on the statements. I'm lucky, I scrimped and saved and was able to pay cash for mine. Not rich or bragging, I worked my ass off in overtime to do it, but it's nice not having a car payment. Just wish I could get rid of that pesky mortgage.

[fourfourto]

If you make one late payment the interest goes up.
If you only make minimum payment you will be paying it off till 2026.

[Bill1065]

True, and points well taken. I plan to keep a continual eye on these companies. If they decide to hike the rate for no reason, as I say, plenty of other offers are there. Wish I could have paid the car cash, but you gotta do what you gotta do. It worked well with the Camaro, hopefully it will work for the H3 also.

[TNTH3]

Did the same thing with our new boat last year. Credit company sent us a check to cash with 2.9% so we did. Didn't have to worry about paying all that interest in the first several payments. With the holidays being busy my wife forgot to send in bill. Called on second day late and they waived late fee but raised interest to 22% on bill. They refuse to lower interest rate so now we are card shopping again.

[Bill1065]

Yeah, it's just a matter of keeping your eye on things. Just following up; the AT&T card balance transfer of 1.99 APR for the life of the loan with no transfer fees went through. Thats $14000 taken from the jaws of a 5.49% APR loan. On top of that, I am sending in a $5000 check today to actually pay off the H3.

Incidently, I called the GM credit folks and gave them the same story; cut off the card unless they can give me a similar transfer offer but they could not do it, even though I purchased a great big H3 about 3 weeks ago. I have a few more card companies to hit with the same ultimatum, which I hardly use.

Although I see no better option in the SUV market than the H3, what I have done will get me the title to my vehicle so I can have the option to either sell or trade it in case they come out with an H4 in a year or two, who knows...

[lotus4s]

All good points above!

One thing though, unless you have more money than you know what to do with, paying 30K CASH for a vehicle makes no sense. With money being so cheap at 5% or less you'd be much better off investing that 30K and getting a 10-20% return or better. Put the cash into something that appreciates instead of losing value like a car. JMHO, I could be wrong....

[HummerNewbie]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by lotus4s:
Put the cash into something that appreciates instead of losing value like a car. JMHO, I could be wrong.... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

That is exactly why I waited so long to get my H3.

[RubHer Yellow Ducky]

LOTUS, PLEASE TELL US WHERE YOU ARE GETTING A 20% RETURN EXCEPT IN LAND

Thanks

RYD

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">One thing though, unless you have more money than you know what to do with, paying 30K CASH for a vehicle makes no sense. With money being so cheap at 5% or less you'd be much better off investing that 30K and getting a 10-20% return or better. Put the cash into something that appreciates instead of losing value like a car. JMHO, I could be wrong.... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

[shipbldr]

I don't know where he does it... but I know where it is done, hower it's a mixe of active and passive income.

Its called "factoring" When a business is short on cash, we step in.

We buy Net 30 invoices for a 5% discount. Wait the 20-30 days and collect full payment on the original invoice.

After overhead we usually make 3%. I have some buddies that buy at 10%... same overhead... not a bad return for 30 days.

Google factoring...

[HummerNewbie]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by rubher yellow ducky:
LOTUS, PLEASE TELL US WHERE YOU ARE GETTING A 20% RETURN EXCEPT IN LAND </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

That is it. Real estate is the only way to go these days. Working on closing a deal right now that will be purchased for $13M, hold for a year for tax reasons and sell. Was just appraised at $27M

Got a friend that just purchased a office building in SC to convert to office condos. Pre-sold some condos before closing on the building and the condo down payments covered the 20% down. Closed on the building then closed on the pre-sold condos. The cash from condos paid off the mortgage on the building and there are still $3M in condos to sell. Not a bad return at all considering he didn't have to put up a dime of his own money

[shipbldr]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by HummerNewbie:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by rubher yellow ducky:
LOTUS, PLEASE TELL US WHERE YOU ARE GETTING A 20% RETURN EXCEPT IN LAND </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

That is it. Real estate is the only way to go these days. Working on closing a deal right now that will be purchased for $13M, hold for a year for tax reasons and sell. Was just appraised at $27M

Got a friend that just purchased a office building in SC to convert to office condos. Pre-sold some condos before closing on the building and the condo down payments covered the 20% down. Closed on the building then closed on the pre-sold condos. The cash from condos paid off the mortgage on the building and there are still $3M in condos to sell. Not a bad return at all considering he didn't have to put up a dime of his own money </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Very nice! Sweet deal...